The proportion of the elderly as crime subject is increasing along with the population aging. The crime rates of the elderly aged more than 65 has increased from 5.7% in 2015 to 7.6% in 2019. In particular, their crime rates are increasing compared to other age groups, and the proportion of violent crimes of the elderly such as rape and murder and property crimes such as theft are also increasing. Therefore, countermeasures in the field of criminal policies and correction should be prepared regarding to the increase of crimes by the elderly. Although the elder crime rate is steadily increasing, people have lack of interests in elder crimes. Furthermore, there are just currently few laws and policies responding to the elder crimes.
The purpose of this study is to empirically verify the effectiveness of correctional programs of elderly inmates. Empirical study was conducted in a dimension of recidivism control of a correctional program, and the correctional programs were evaluated in a dimension of revised risk, desire and reactivity model to verify whether the intervention of the correctional programs directly or indirectly affect a dimension of risk factors and desire factors, a dimension of implementation level of correctional programs, and a dimension of correction culture.
A quantitative study was conducted to analyze whether the participation in the correctional programs influence the recidivism in the dimension of risk factors of elderly inmates. The elderly inmates who were followed up until 2011 among those aged more than 65 committing property crime, brutal crime and crime of violence and being released in 2005 were the subjects of quantitative study. The data was extracted from Borami System Information of Korea Correctional Service. Even though though the empirical follow-up research data generally includes the panel data of adolescent, this is the only one that empirically followed up for adults, especially for the elderly. Thus, this data is used in this study to verify whether participation of elderly inmates in correctional programs has an effect on the recidivism control. However, it may be relatively different from the current characteristics of elder inmates and correctional programs.
Next, the dimension of risk and desire factors of elder inmates, of implementation level of correctional programs, and of correction culture were proved through qualitative study. When the study was conducted, the quarantine policy was reinforced due to COVID-19 in 2020, so access to a prison and reception were controlled. Therefore, the elderly inmates who were fulfilling the attendance center order in a probation offic, and criminals in different age groups were selected as subjects for this study. In addition, both the correctional officials working in correctional institutions only for the elderly and in general correctional institutions were selected as a subject for this study. This study also discussed about the revised RNR model to analyze the effectiveness of the correctional programs. In the quantitative study using secondary data, qualitative study was conducted at the same time to overcome the limitation in which it is hard to verify the entire model. Therefore, the study analyzed whether the invention of the correctional programs affects the recidivism control in various dimensions of risk and desire factors for the elderly inmates, the implementation level of the correctional programs and correction culture.
The results of the analyzing the empirical data showed that participation in prison labor, participation in external reception program and consultation programs did not have impacts on the recidivism control. This supported the results from previous studies that the correctional programs have little effect on the recidivism control. The results of in-depth interviews with correctional officials and criminals who were attending education at the probation office showed that the elder criminals had more positive attitudes toward the contents of education than those in other age groups when conducting crime prevention education programs. On the other hand, it was found that the program development of individual treatments for the elderly inmates was still inadequate. The special programs for relieving stress due to the adaptation to correctional facilities were operated, but the programs that remove or treat the factors for practical prevention of recidivism were not operated. The correctional officials mentioned that the recidivism rates of the elderly inmates can increase later rather than other age groups and emphasized that an active support for rehabilitation to the society of these people is required in terms of social welfare.
Moreover, one of the causes of the elders crime is social and economic alienation, and this may be overcome through the active support and participation of family members. Therefore, applying loosened disciplines in the number, place and time of reception for the elderly inmates with consideration for their physical specificity would be desirable. In addition, promoting and expanding video reception that is being implemented for the reception with family who are in a long distance may be a necessary measure to cope with the social disconnection of the elderly inmates and to recover the family relations.
Further studies that are expected to elaborate the close connection between welfare for the aged and correctional activities which are presented as a practical model in super aging society are continued. Also, based on these results, we expect that innovative correctional programs which focus on prison labor and reception and reflect the characteristics of the elderly and aging are gradually introduced and realized in various ways.